Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: playstation 3

My Latest Game Purchase

Posted on by Viljami

My latest game purchase, that I collected from the mail locker just yesterday, includes two PS2 games and four PS3 games. I bought Midnight Club 3 – DUB Edition (PS2), Sonic Heroes (PS2), Bayonetta (PS3), Spiderman 3 (PS3), Aliens vs. Predator (PS3) and Need for Speed – Most Wanted (PS3). They did cost me 109 euros with shipping included. I am waiting to have a chance to get into these new purchases. I am going to have to knock on wood while I’m saying that I am glad that my PS3 still works. It has served already over 16 years in my video game setup. I have faced some issues with hardware earlier. I have two broken PS2 consoles, a broken original Xbox and also an Xbox 360 console that doesn’t work.

Somehow these consoles don’t seem to last forever. I am also not so good at maintaining or repairing stuff like these consoles. I think they actually aren’t even meant to last for tens of years. That is the main reason why I am trusting more and more on emulation. So, I am going to rip these two PS2 games that I just bought and play them with an emulator. I have two different devices that I am running emulation on. One is a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB of RAM. It is running Recalbox. I use it to emulate mainly Sega Mega Drive, SNES, NES, PS1 and also some more exciting consoles while I use another device (a desktop PC) that runs Batocera to play PS2 and some other consoles that require a bit more power.

So, there are two racing games included with my latest game purchase. Midnight Club 3 is a classic racing game. There is really no words necessary for the introduction of a game that belongs to Need for Speed series of video games. This title is labled with “Most Wanted”. It think it will be eventually a good game that might take some hours to get into. Usually I have somewhat liked almost every Need for Speed game that I’ve played.

Why did I pick up Bayonetta? I heard a word or two about it as I was reading a book that desrcibes different video game characters. Bayonetta is a strong female character and it seemed an interesting game and I wanted to purhcase it. I am going to try to find some time to get into this game. I also bought Sonic Heroes because Sonic games just rock. I also bought Spiderman 3. I think there are very few bad games that feature Spiderman. So, why not give it a try. The last game in my latest game purhcase that I haven’t yet mention in this paragraph of this blog post is Aliens vs. Predator. It must be a decent first person shooter.

I made this purchase because I found these games interesting. The price was also cheap. I mean I got these six games for a price lower than what it would have been for two new games. Actually I think you couldn’t buy two new games with 110 euros. It might be possible if the games wouldn’t be brand new releases. I am content with yhis game purchase. I am waiting to get to enjoy also these new games.

I have been lately still playing Gran Turismo 3. It takes some time to finish it. I have spent already over 15 hours on playing GT3. The game might take a bit over 40 hours to finish. Also I have a confession to make. I haven’t, yet dived into plaiyng the new Resident Evil game Resident Evil Requiem. I have read that it is a very good game. I am waiting to get into playing it also soon.

The Push for New Hardware

Posted on by Viljami

What is the push for new hardware and where does this kind of thinking fit? What are some options for getting your hands on the latest hardware? Are you playing video games with older hardware? Where does emulating retro video game consoles fit right in this discussion? These are only some of the questions I am trying to answer in this latest blog post. I am happy to have you on board!

I was recently playing some PS2 games on my current PC setup. I started thinking about some modern games and how were they compared to these old PS2 games. There is just some deeper appeal in these so called retro games for me. I have also played lots of Xbox 360 games recently. One of these Xbox 360 games is Dirt 3 and there are many other good games that you can actually play on the latest Xbox, Xbox Series X, through its backwards compatibility.

For me the golden era of video games was, or is, the 2000s. Back in the day we had consoles like PS2, PS3, original Xbox and also Xbox 360 along with GameCube. Sega Dreamcast has to be also mentioned when it comes to the hardware of this golden era of gaming. There are also ways to run these games on emulators. So even after the hardware might be broken, that being the console or the actual game disc, you can still get back to playing games from this era. Today we are getting lots of power out of PCs. It is today possible to emulate Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware with a decently powerful, new, PC.

Why are we getting pushed for new hardware? This is a very good question. The hardware manufacturers have to sell some products. After all there would be no manufacturers if there weren’t new hardware products for them to sell. Also the software is getting sold mainly for same reasons. Without mentioning any specific company we can say that there are some facets that get profit from pushing the new hardware to us consumers that also are the gamers in this world.

What is enough when it comes to performance? We could have a device that would be roughly as powerful as a PS4 and that would actually provide all the power needed to run modern video games. One particular gaming console that has made a difference when it comes to performance was the first Nintendo Switch. in the recent years it couldn’t stand up against its greatest competitors.

Do we need new hardware so badly? For me the answer is actually no. You can have a ten year old PC that you would connect to a screen of any type and play the best games from 2000s with a brand new Xbox One controller and enjoy the golden era, according to my viewpoint, with this kind of a setup. We have some hobbyist that actually like to play with and fix old computers. Also many old PC games cannot be run with a modern PC at all. You might need an older operating system and also some old drivers for older hardware like graphics processing unit or an audio device.

I have had some tough luck with my older video game hardware. I have broken two PS2s, one original Xbox and also one Xbox 360 console. The main issue I’ve had was that the console isn’t somehow able to read the game disc anymore. This has everything to do with dust. Also original Xbox has some electrical components, condensers, actually, that are very sensitive to wearing down when time progresses. So, for me it is way more easier to just abandon a broken down console and turn to some emulation on a suitable PC.

These were some thoughts that I had in mind. They were appearing to me as I was playing some PS2 games as I told you in the beginning of this blog post. I ahve to say that I was actually playing Need for Speed – Hot Pursuit 2, but I just couldn’t find the original game to take a photo of. So you are going to have to be content with another great PS2 racing game Burnout 3 – Takedown. I actually do play my PS2 emulator games with this fresh Xbox Series S/X compatible game pad. It is very handy as a controller on a Windows PC.

Best Gamepad for PS3?

Posted on by Viljami

I have recently spent tens of hours playing some PS3 games. I played mainly Colin McRae Dirt 2 which is a good quality rally racing game originally released back in 2009. There are still many good games that you can play on PS3. This video game console can still hold its place among gamers hearths. I don’t consider it being yet a retro console.

PS3 was released originally in 2006. You can find many games for it with a cheap price tag of about from 5 to 10 or maybe 20 euros. There are some rarities or games that seem to be more expensive. Of course it must be considered that while the quality of the actual physical console is good the hardware is actually already getting a bit old now. Luckily it is already possible to run these games on a PC with an emulator. You just have to have a PC with a decent performance.

The thing that this time inspired me to write this blog post was that I came to think about what would be the greatest or best gamepad for PS3? The Dual Shock 3 isn’t a bad controller. It operates a wireless controller but I used to use the cable with it all the time just in case. It required a cable of a length of 3 meters and I think that is just a perfect length for a cable like this. I continued this workaround with my PS4 later.

I currently use a wired controller with my PS3. It is Spartan Gear Oplon. It isn’t an expensive controller at all. It does cost and it is also available for a price of 20 euros. It can be also used with a regular PC for any video game. It has actually a USB connector. I think this is a very good solution. The controller is very compact and seems to be very durable.

If we compare the latest Xbox gamepad with Oplon I have to say that the Xbox controller seems to be a bit better. So I wouldn’t recommend Oplon over Xbox Series S/X controller. Of course the Xbox controller is also a bit more expensive. I think you can get one for about 60 euros of price. The Xbox controller works nicely in wireless mode and especially if you purchase a good quality battery or batteries and a charging dock. So, you don’t actually have to keep the controller plugged in with the cable at least not all the time.

I have owned my Spartan Gear Oplon for many years already. I haven’t noticed anything that would make it a bad choice for wired PS3 or even PC gaming. It is a decent option for a retro game playing with PS3. The gamepad feels light as it doesn’t utilize a battery at all. I would recommend however the latest Xbox gamepad if you are gaming on a Linux or Windows device. I have to say that the Xbox controller suits especially well with Recalbox on Raspberry Pi 5. I also use it for PC gaming today with my Windows 10 that is actually going to be unsupported the next October as I am forced to buy a new PC or move to Linux completely.

As a short summary I have to conclude that Spartan Gear Oplon is a decent, cheap and durable option that can challenge also Dual Shock 3 controller as your main controller for playing video games with PS3. Some other very good PS3 games that I also like and am going to probably play are all Ratchet & Clank games, Hitman series games and maybe some Need for Speed games and especially NFS Shift 1 and 2 are good choices that you can choose to play. All in all the PS3 has still a lot to offer as it has these classic titles. The hardware seems to be durable and if something with it fails you can in any case go to the emulation as your backup option.